


Teamwork

by Rod



Series: Parallel Lines [8]
Category: Veritas: The Quest
Genre: M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-21
Updated: 2013-04-21
Packaged: 2017-12-09 03:48:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/769615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rod/pseuds/Rod
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nikko wonders what the hell Cal is up to.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Teamwork

Nikko's pretty much had it with Cal. The constant sniping is getting to him, which is really stupid when you look at it. There's nothing much to Cal's insults and put-downs, and it's pathetically easy to turn them round and throw them straight back, so why the hell do they affect him so much?

It doesn't help that Juliet has been taking Cal's side lately. Of course she only really sees it when Cal gets at him for being too young, but he thought they had something going on. After his time in prison Nikko had been so vulnerable, and when Juliet gave him his coin back it nearly did what all the beatings couldn't. That coin held so many of his memories, he nearly cried to get it back again. Just then, when he was too weak to hide the real Nikko and she was too concerned to hide the real Juliet, just then he thought they'd made a real connection.

Since then, it's been back to the daily grind as far as she seems to be concerned. She's his tutor, and maybe she allows him a bit more latitude than before but she also expects more of him too. That feels like such a weird combination, and Nikko isn't entirely sure what's happened to their friendship in all this. Sure, he can still tease her, and they can talk about serious stuff that Nikko would never had dreamed of talking about before, but flirting with her feels so uncomfortable that he's all but stopped doing it. Nikko's not entirely sure what's going on in his own head; either he's too serious about Juliet for flirting to be right or he's not interested, and he really wishes he'd tell himself which one it is. Right now, he's just plain confused.

Which perversely leads him back to Cal being an asshole, because that's confusing the hell out of Nikko as well. Nikko doesn't want to think of Cal as an asshole, in fact he's pretty sure that Cal isn't an asshole. They've all been drilling in to Nikko that Veritas is a team, and that teams do things together, each person doing the job they're best suited for. A team doesn't have a place for troublemakers, grandstanders or other types of asshole, and Nikko knows his dad wouldn't have hired Calvin if he was like that to anyone else. He's seen them all at work, and he _knows_ Cal isn't like that to anyone else.

So why is Cal being a pain to him? Nikko's got several theories, but none of them really fit the bill.

Maybe Cal just doesn't like him, and Nikko couldn't blame him because he did go out of his way to needle Cal when he first arrived, jealous of Cal getting his father's attention. But he thought they'd got over that, and anyway Cal's supposed to be professional enough not to let it get to him.

Maybe Cal's jealous of him, the way Nikko was, and to be honest still is to an extent, jealous of Cal. Except that doesn't stack up either, because Cal's the one who gets to do the work and get the praise. Cal's got to know that his position is secure, that Nikko doesn't know half the stuff that he does and probably never will.

Or maybe, and this is the one that Nikko's hoping for, maybe it's some kind of test. It's not the most convincing of rationales, but it's the most positive one that Nikko can think of. Everyone's always going on about how Nikko's got to grow up, even Vincent in his indirectly supportive way, so maybe this is something that they've all concocted to see whether he'll find a mature way to handle it. And OK, maybe firing insults back isn't the most mature response he could come up with, but at least he's not starting fist fights.

The thing that most aggravates Nikko most about the whole business is that when they aren't fighting, he and Cal make a hell of a team. If Robert hadn't interrupted them down in the Templar complex, he's willing to bet that he and Cal could have figured out how to get that column open. If his dad could get fragments of a clue with ten spare seconds and a bit of inspiration, the two of them could have gotten the whole thing without setting anything off, given time. They'd got as far as the treasure chamber faster than the others, after all.

Nikko wishes he knew what to do about Calvin. Despite everything they've thrown at each other, he doesn't want to lose one of the few people he actually wants to call a friend, and he's very much afraid that they are heading that way.


End file.
